This is what is looks like when a hedge-fund billionaire sweats.
Steve Cohen is shrinking the footprint of his SAC Capital Advisors, shutting his 50-person London office by Dec. 31 and laying off six portfolio managers in the US.
Earlier this year SAC laid off most of its marketing staff and shuttered its Chicago office.
The firm has reportedly been trying to sell its reinsurance unit as well as some private holdings, like Kadmon Pharmaceuticals.
The moves come as prosecutors lean on the 57-year-old investor to settle the criminal insider-trading charges against SAC before a trial against one of his top portfolio managers, Michael Steinberg, begins next month.
Word of SAC’s exit from London came in a memo to employees of the Stamford, Conn.-based firm from SAC President Tom Conheeney — a copy of which was obtained by The Post.
“As our negotiations with the government have unfolded, it has become clear to us that the outcome the government is demanding is likely to have a greater than first anticipated impact on the firm,” Conheeney wrote in the memo.
“We have concluded that we must operate as a simpler firm and reduce our capital allocations,” he wrote.
As recently as Sept. 20, SAC had 950 employees, 400 of them investment professionals, according to a regulatory filing. In addition to the soon-to-be-shuttered London office, SAC has offices in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Boston, New York City and Stamford.
SAC’s payroll is down about 50 since the start of the year. A handful of investment professionals have left for other hedge funds, like Millennium Management, despite Cohen bumping up bonuses to keep some of his stars.
The firm had regulatory assets under management of $50.9 billion as of the recent filing. That means it has levered up its $14 billion in capital to get returns of about 26 percent through Sept. 30 —before taking its 50 percent performance fee.
SAC has about $5 billion to return to investors — moves that are expected to be complete by year end. That will leave SAC with just Cohen’s $9 billion fortune to manage.
Under the proposed settlement with Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara, SAC will pay roughly $1.4 billion and admit to criminal conduct, according to reports. SAC has also agreed to pay $616 million to settle with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The settlement will likely bar SAC from managing outside money and turn the 21-year-old firm into a family office — that is, managing no outside money but only the roughly $7 billion that remains of Cohen cash.
Even though that is still larger than most hedge funds, SAC would still have a bloated staff. Many bigger funds have fewer than 100 employees.
SAC doesn’t seem to think that’s a problem.
“We do not anticipate any further material changes in investment personnel headcount and we believe we have in place a strong team for 2014,” Conheeney said in the memo.